The present invention relates to the ascertainment of dimensions, measurements, topology, surface contour and the like of three dimensional object such as a person under utilization of photography, and more particularly the invention relates to ascertaining body size and contours of a human being by means of photography whereby the person is photographed together with a measuring line raster, in that upon taking of the picture or plurality of pictures a line raster pattern is projected onto the body or object.
A method of the kind to which the invention pertains is disclosed and shown for example in German Pat. No. 29 48 010 corresponding to my U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,039 and German printed patent application No. 34 25 913 corresponding to my U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,107. The line raster as projected from above permits in fact the introduction of 3-dimensional aspects. Whenever the lines as projected onto the object or body deviate from the horizontal (assuming the lines as projected are horizontal) then these lines are distorted and in fact delineate as far as there is a deviation from the horizontal is concerned, a third dimensional contour. For instance, if a horizontal line is projected from above and the projected line deflects upwards, this represents a physical projection of the object towards the camera. If the line raster is sufficiently tight i.e. exhibiting a significant resolution then one can in fact establish a fairly detailed 3-dimensional topological picture of the surface of the object facing the camera. The line raster for example is produced in accordance with the known method by means of a flash projector and a slide for the line pattern. There is, however, a disadvantage when the body is tall and in close-up photography the human body is in fact such a large body. One may not be able to cover the entire body in one picture but has to show at least the torso of the person. In this case all lines except the line that is projected at a 45 degrees angle will have to be subjected to different conversions in order to extract exact physical measurements from the photograph.